Price: Starts at $899.99
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5000 series or 10th Gen Intel Core
Display: 15.6-inch Full HD w/ 120Hz refresh, option to upgrade to 165Hz panel
RAM: 8-32 GB of 3200Mhz DDR4
Storage: 256 GB - 2 TB PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD
Graphics: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060, 6 GB GDDR6
Weight: Not announced
Dimensions: 1.06 x 14.1 x 10.4 inches
EDITOR'S NOTE: The Dell G15 won a "highly recommended" honor for best budget gaming laptop at the Tom's Guide Awards 2021 for gaming.
Today the team at Dell unveiled two new additions to the company's lineup of gaming laptops: the revamped Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5 and the Dell G15 Ryzen Edition, both of which feature Nvidia GPUs and AMD Ryzen CPUs.
The G15 Ryzen Edition is the more affordable of the two, a 15-inch laptop that can be outfitted with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 30 Series laptop GPU, up to an AMD Ryzen 5000 series CPU, and 3200Mhz DD4 memory that you can upgrade yourself.
- The best laptops, ranked
- Check out the best PC games of 2021
- Review 2021's best gaming laptops
Dell G15 Ryzen Edition price and release date
Dell plans to sell the G15 Ryzen Edition in the U.S. starting May 4th, and a different model of the G15 sporting a 10th-generation Intel CPU will go on sale May 13th. Both models are expected to go on sale at a starting price of $899.99.
Dell G15 Ryzen Edition design
Dell's new G15 is being pitched as a sleek, budget-friendly gaming laptop with a narrow bezel and what the company describes as "Alienware-inspired thermal design" intended to effectively dissipate heat by maximizing airflow.
The G15 will be available in a Dark Shadow Grey finish at launch, as well as two speckled variants (one Specter Green, the other Phantom Grey). Dell expects to begin offering the laptop in a fourth finish, the elusive Obsidian Black, later this year.
The new G15 will also include the Game Shift key built into Dell's G series of gaming laptops, which is designed to amp up the unit's cooling efforts while playing games and doing other intensive tasks.
If you like your keys backlit, the G15 will offer two upgrade options for its standard full-size keyboard: one an orange backlight with special emphasis on WASD, the other a customizable 4-zone RGB backlit keyboard with emphasized WASD keys.
Dell G15 Ryzen Edition display
The new G15 will ship with a 1920 x 1080 Full HD LED display with 250 nits of brightness and a 120Hz refresh rate. Those looking for more performance can upgrade to an improved model blasting 300 nits of brightness at a 165Hz refresh rate, though it's yet unclear how much that upgrade will cost or whether it might affect battery life.
Dell G15 Ryzen Edition ports
As far as connections go, the Dell G15 is slated to ship with 1 HDMI 2.1 port, 1 USB 3.2 port, 1 USB-C port (with a DisplayPort alt-mode), 2 USB 2.0 ports (one with PowerShare), a headset/microphone jack, and an Ethernet (RJ45) port.
Dell G15 Ryzen Edition performance
The entry-level G15 will come equipped with an AMD Ryzen 5 5600H hexacore CPU, and you'll have the option to upgrade that to an AMD Ryzen 7 5800H octacore processor for an as-yet undisclosed price.
If you want an Intel chip in your new G15 you'll have to wait until those models begin shipping April 13th, and you'll be getting a 10th gen Intel CPU (either a Core-i5 quadcore or a Core-i7 octacore CPU) instead of one of the newer 11th gen models.
As far as graphical processing power goes, Dell says the G15 will ship with an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 or RTX 30 Series GPU, up to a GeForce RTX 3060 with 6GB of GDDR6 memory. That suggests we can expect even the entry-level G15 to put up respectable numbers in terms of CPU/GPU performance, though we'll have to wait for more thorough testing to know for sure.
Dell G15 Ryzen Edition battery life
Dell expects to sell the G15 Ryzen Edition with either a 56 WHr 3-cell battery or a larger 86Wh, 6-cell battery. Expect the entry-level model to ship with the 3-cell battery, while Dell says the larger 6-cell battery is an option/necessity for some of the more high-powered possible CPU/GPU configurations.
The company hasn't (yet) stated how many hours the G15 can hold out on battery power, but we're looking forward to testing it against our own battery benchmarks.
Dell G15 outlook
The laptops we've tested in Dell's G series have offered respectable performance and screen quality at a budget-friendly price, and the new G15 seems likely to live up to that reputation. AMD's new 5000 series Ryzen CPUs have earned critical praise in recent years, so we're looking forward to putting the new G15 through its paces to see how it compares.
